Hello all,
I need to keep this brief because I'm up early and teaching on Tiananmen Square before a visit to the Square and Forbidden City itself (and back to the hotel to meet Dorothy, who joins us tomorrow!). We are having a phenomenal time here. I had a really stress-filled first couple of days trying to figure out childcare for Zhou Zhou. She was in prime form: jet-lagged, feeling left out of the program, missing her sister who has made new friends, missing Mom who is involved with all these other children, and culturally and linguistically disoriented. Yikes--it wasn't pretty. But with some much-needed sleep and some with finally reconnecting with all the right folks (Ciele and Li Ayi) she is doing great.
Her reunion with Li Ayi was pretty incredible. She was sooo excited the night before, but also very nervous. Then when the moment finally arrived that she got to see Li Ayi she just melted into the happiest smile and demeanor. The reunion happened in the lobby of the hotel at 8:15 in the morning, a mere twelve mostly sleepless hours after our arrival with me due to lead an orientation in a half hour. Thank goodness it went well, because the stakes were high (Li Ayi was my childcare that morning!). But they were terrific together. Zhou Zhou took her hand immediately to lead her back to our room and Li Ayi kept touching her cheek and speaking to her softly in her sweet way. When I returned to check on them two hours later they were curled up comfortably on the couch together, Li Ayi had made them both tea, had styled Zhou Zhou's hair, and was getting an English language writing lesson from a very enthusiastic teacher. Ciele joined them for the rest of the afternoon. When Li Ayi departed from us at the Minority Nationalities Theme Park, Zhou suddenly started crying these sad quiet tears and said, "I miss Li Ayi" and then she just dissolved in sobs uncontrollably, so much so that I had to depart from the park early with her. I think it may have taken her three years to finally feel the reality of our having left Beijing. Things are much stabler now, thanks to this support of Ciele and Li Ayi.
Fei Fei is having an amazing time. I can't quite believe she is hanging out like one of the big kids. She is the second youngest in the program, older than our youngest (Victor) by one month. She is great friends with her closest female peer, Rebecca, who is nine and who is also Fei Fei's roommate and placed in the same Chinese class. They are truly adorable together. Rebecca's older brother, Jonathon (15), is on the program and is a sweet presence for the girls as well, and her grandparents (Chinese) live in Beijing and have visited and are quite lovely with Fei Fei too. It is amazing for me to have Fei Fei as one of my students in this capacity, participating in group reflections and debriefs right along with all the others and showing up for all the program activities with her journal and pen in hand. Wow.
I couldn't ask for a better group of 25 other children for my daughters to be hanging with. I am really fortunate in this way. Most are in middle school or high school and I feared this would be a very bad mixing for my girls. But these are the best role models I could have dreamt up for them. There are caucasian kids who have been studying Chinese since they were small, beautiful Chinese girls who are strong and self-assured and named "Jessica" and "Stephanie." All are a bunch of really diligent students who are modeling great study skills and love of learning. They are funny, fun, mature and insightful in their reflections. Today at lunch at my small table (that included both Fei Fei and Zhou Zhou) I marveled as some of the students discussing another student's boarding school experience, asking intelligent questions about how Russia differed from China, and what the backgrounds of the kids were like who went to the school. The conversation then shifted to a really engaged philosophical debate about whether or not watermelon seeds were "living" things (what constitutes life? what is dormant life? what does it mean to have potential?). Fei Fei actually participated in this discussion like I wasn't there to impress...amazing.
We are doing daily updates for the parents and I've attached the first three of these. Let me know if you would like to receive others to have a day-to-day sense of what we're doing. The first one will probably give you the best set of the tone and objectives of the program, so that might be the one to read if you have limited time. I may start posting them in some form to my blog as it seems I'm running out of steam to keep my own blog.
Oh goodness, Fei Fei just knocked on my door with her roommate, asking me to put alcohol drops in Rebecca's ears to prevent her from getting swimmer's ear (we swam in Chao Yang Park today where Zhou Zhou, by the way, swam a whopping 100 meters in two lengths in a lane line without stopping!). But back to that knock on the door. It's 10:30 pm at night and "light's out" was an hour ago. Turns out Rebecca and Fei Fei have been up hand washing their socks and underwear and hanging them to dry in their window. How can I possibly be mad? This is where being both a mom and program director can be challenging. She violated "light's out," but I'm so dang proud of her for washing her own laundry! Oh, she'll be a sleepy girl in the Square tomorrow and likely unhappy when I branch off to go meet Nona!
I'll end on this note. Much love from Beijing.....
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